Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"SF looks towards an imaginary future, while fantasy, by and large, looks towards an imaginary past."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Pocket Universe | ||
| A created, separate space within the normal space of the universe. |
A unique, early use of this term and idea.
| He'd evidently put aside the small contrivance I'd last seen him working on, and he'd made a gadget—a diamagnet or whatever it ought to be called—a thing that closed space around itself in a pocket universe when it was turned on—that was extendible. |
| Technovelgy from Pocket Universes,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1946 Additional resources -
|
A bit of pseudoscience:
I slipped the paper-clip on it and stretched
it between the thumb and forefinger of my
hand. Then — feeling very foolish— I made
two ink-spots on the rubber. They were a
couple of inches from each other, with the
paper-clip in between.
The paper-clip represented the copper-glass-wire contrivance, and the ink-spots
two arbitrary places on the table. Then I
twisted the paper-clip so that it wound up
the rubber band about itself. It stretched.
The ink-spots approached each other. Presently they touched. Then I let go the paperclip and everything slipped back. They were
far apart again, with the clip in between.
That was it, exactly. Einstein has proved
that space is elastic. The rubber band was
also elastic. When the paper-clip — representing the weird object on the work-table —
wrapped the rubber band which represented
space about itself, why, presently there
wasn’t any rubber band or space between
the two dots. But when I released it, everything went back to normal and there was
space and a metal object between them.
The diamagnet wrapped space about it-
self. It absorbed space. The reason one’s
eyes hurt when looking at the place where
space had been absorbed was that they tried
to focus impossibly. Objects behind the vanished gadget were nearer than objects which
weren’t behind it. They hadn’t moved, of
course. But a certain amount of space — of distance — had been removed.
Compare to the worldcraft bubbles from Philip K Dick's The Trouble With Bubbles (1953).
So I went over to the table where Santos
wrote up his notes and picked up a rubber
band and a paper-clip. It was a red rubber
band, I remember.
This term was used in a spiritual sense in the late nineteenth century.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Pocket Universes
More Ideas
and Technology by Murray Leinster
Tech news articles related to Pocket Universes
Tech news articles related to works by Murray Leinster
| SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha |
| NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts |
| Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn |
| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
